High Sierra Topix

Very nice. Looks cold!

So we were only out for 8 days and were intending to start and finish at the Twin Lakes Trailhead. My first instinct was to stay put for a couple days in Matterhorn Canyon and wait for the snow to melt. After all it was mid September but it was cold and the snow wasn't going anywhere so we decided to exit at Tuolumne Meadows instead of heading over Burro and Mule passes in the snow. It was a good call.

We started as a party of 4 and spent 2 days at Peeler Lake enjoying the fishing and the solitude that late fall trips bring. Two of our party wisely decided to head back with the forecast of 2 inches of snow and cold weather. We saw no one for 2 days after we left Peeler and headed for Benson. Markskor and Old ranger were the first non PCTers we ran into as we were heading to Smedberg and they were going to Benson which we had just departed. They had the look of two experienced old dudes in their element and were in high spirits as they mentioned their plan of accessing the big fish of Benson with their rafts. I thought it was a grand plan and was a bit jealous and not expecting a big storm. We spent a day at Smedberg and saw a few people around but we had the lake to ourselves by nightfall. A dinner of trout was easily acquired and we layed out on the granite slabs after dinner and gazed out at the milky way under a moonless sky. The clear night did not suggest a dramatic change in the weather.

Fishing was great until the foot of snow fell on us in Matterhorn Canyon. We had intended to catch a few goldens in Matterhorn Creek since my hiking partner had never caught one. I had tricked him into coming on one of my adventures with a promise of gold. Well we awoke to a foot of snow and a clear sky, but it soon started snowing steady again so we headed out towards Tuolumne Meadows. It was actually cool to spend a night in the usually over crowded Glen Aulin camp with just one other group who we quickly befriended because of their nice campfire. The snow was still around 3 days later and we managed to hitch the 50 miles back to our car with just 2 rides. We stunk so bad we decided to eat our trip ending meal in the Walker Burger parking lot in our car to spare people the stink. The smell of another grand adventure! The triple burgers and fries were out of this world.

As usual the late fall trip brought solitude and good fishing. As usual the weather was unsteady but that just adds to the adventure if you are prepared. The convenience of self issue wilderness permits reminds me of the old days. My favorite season in the Sierra! 0 mosquito bites but lots of bites off my mosquito fly!

You can see a video log of our trip here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THsenOhTr34

Great write up and photos. Thanks for sharing!